


Six Red Roses

by TheWeirdOneL



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Angst, M/M, but i had to, dont hate me, i hope its loved, i swear i love richie more than i love my own life, lmaoooo im dead inside after writing this, so um i cried while writing this, to summarise: im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-17 22:49:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12375762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWeirdOneL/pseuds/TheWeirdOneL
Summary: Only six people in Richie's entire world loved him, but that didn't matter.Until one day it did, and it hurt like death.





	Six Red Roses

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sobbing.

Richie Tozier knew he wasn’t liked by many people. He knew he was annoying and he did stupid things that people hated him for, and he knew only six people in his entire world loved him despite everything he was and continued to be. He knew all of that, but he didn’t really think it mattered. It didn’t matter that all of his teachers saw him as the no good trashmouth who caused trouble wherever he went. It didn’t matter that his dad didn’t really love him all that much and his mother didn’t really want him to be alive. It didn’t matter whatsoever that Henry Bowers and his group of friends hated how obnoxious he was and how he always made them look like idiots no matter what they did. None of it mattered, because he had six people who loved him so much more than that. None of it mattered because he had his favourite ginger and stuttering mom-friend, and he had his curly-haired dad-friend and his nerdy bookworm and his sent-from-the-Heavens farmer boy. Because he had Eddie Kaspbrak and he fucking loved Eddie Kaspbrak like he’d never loved anyone before. And they all loved him so much that nothing else mattered. But then one day it did matter, and it hurt like death.

It all mattered on a warm Summer's day when Richie was riding his bike towards the Barrens where he was supposed to meet his friends. The sun was blazing as it burned down on the small town of Derry. Not a single cloud was blocking it’s view as it blinded Richie so much he barely even saw the figures standing ahead of him until he crashed into something and he felt arms grabbing him off his bike. The arms dragged him away from the road and when the shelter of a tree gave him his sight back he saw Henry Bowers standing in front of him with his friends, Vic and Belch, holding his arms with his back up against the bark. Richie had been in this situation enough times to know how to get out of it. But something was different today because Vic and Belch held on tighter and Henry looked even scarier as he took out the knife Richie had seen far too many times and held it in a way that told Richie he was in trouble. 

Richie didn’t speak as Henry fiddled with the knife mockingly in front of Richie’s face. He was saying something, and so were Vic and Belch, but Richie could only hear his heart pumping in his ears. He didn’t hear a word of what was said but he could imagine that Henry was telling him how much he hated him. That was how it always went, but all the other times it didn’t really matter to Richie because he always got away with maybe some cuts and bruises that his friends would always patch up. But it mattered today, and it mattered when Henry pressed his cold forehead to Richie’s and violently hissed, 

“You deserve this,” as he took his knife and with crazy in his eyes he placed the tip of the blade in between two of Richie’s ribs and sunk it deep into his flesh. The pain was excruciating, but Richie didn’t scream as his knees gave way and he sunk to the floor.

Vic and Belch let go of his arms and Henry stood back as though the demon that had been possessing him temporarily left his body as he stared down at the mess he’d made. There was blood everywhere. Richie could hear a voice shouting in the distance, but he didn’t see anything as he choked for air and shakily placed his hand over the wound. He felt like his lungs were filling up with liquid as he gasped for air and tried to regain his sight and hearing. Everything sounded fuzzy, and there were so many spots in his vision that he didn’t realise when he passed out until he opened his eyes again and he saw white and felt pain. 

“Richie! Oh thank fucking god!” he heard a voice shout beside him. He felt arms wrap around his neck and he felt like screaming in fear until he saw Eddie’s straight black hair at the corner of his eye. As his vision started to unblur, he saw Beverly, Bill, Stan, Ben, and Mike, standing around him looking equally relieved and terrified. They had been crying, he could tell, because all of their faces were red and blotchy and some of them were wiping their eyes as they started smiling. He felt tears seeping into whatever the hell he was wearing, and he used what little energy he had to wrap his arms around Eddie’s body and press his face into the crook of his neck.

“We... We thought you were gonna die,” Beverly sniffed, trying to hold back a sob as she approached the two and wrapped her arms around them both. She couldn’t hold it any longer, and Richie felt her body shake with grief as she let out a fresh stream of tears. Then everyone was crying, and everyone had their arms around Richie and he was crying too but all he could think was that he wasn’t meant to be here. He was meant to be dead because Henry Bowers, for once in his life, was  _ actually right _ . He  _ did _ deserve to be stabbed because Richie Tozier was  _ horrible _ and  _ awful _ and everything that everyone said about him was true and it really, truly, did matter that they hated him. 

He didn’t deserve his friends staying with him until their parents angrily called them and forced them to go home. He didn’t deserve Eddie laying down by his side and staying with him as the sun set outside and night started to fall on Derry. He didn’t deserve to be alive right now, and Eddie couldn’t have disagreed more.

“He told me I deserved it,” Richie spoke as they silently watched the sun disappear below the canopy of houses in the distance. Eddie looked up at him, and Richie still had his eyes glued on the window as he watched the sky. “I think he was right. People really hate me, Eds.” Eddie could see Richie’s eyes start to blur over with tears, and he felt the way Richie’s arms held Eddie tighter and Eddie thought his heart was going to break because Richie was being dead serious. 

“Shut the fuck up,” Eddie said, leaning his head back down and grabbing a handful of Richie’s hospital gown as he felt tears brimming at the corners of his own eyes. He couldn’t believe that Richie would ever believe anything Henry Bowers said. “I fucking love you and Henry Bowers is an asshole.”

Eddie knew Richie was annoying and did stupid things that people hated him for. He knew that, but Eddie would never stop loving Richie because he fell in love with the boy that was annoying and did stupid things that people hated him for. He fell in love with the boy who wasn’t liked by teachers and wasn’t loved by his parents and who was hated so deeply by Henry Bowers that he stabbed him. He fell in love with that boy and it didn’t matter what Richie did or said, Eddie could never, ever, believe that Richie deserved to die. 

Richie smiled and gave a light laugh, and wiped away the tears that threatened to fall down his cheeks. He didn’t speak for a while, but when he did it meant so much. “I love you too, Eds,” he said in the smallest of whispers, and he looked down and Eddie had fallen asleep with his head rested on Richie’s chest. But Richie didn’t mind that he didn’t hear it as he smiled one last time, and he pressed a soft kiss ontop of Eddie’s head as he closed his eyes and let the rising moon lull him to sleep.

* * *

 

Richie’s funeral was held on a warm Summer’s day. The night that he fell asleep with Eddie in his arms, he’d closed his eyes and in the morning he didn’t open them again. During his sleep his lungs had filled with blood because Henry Bowers had taken the knife out just before the ambulance got to Richie, and the doctors didn’t realise it had pierced his lung until Eddie screamed for them the next morning when he woke up and couldn’t feel Richie’s chest moving anymore. He had screamed for Richie to wake up, begging him not to go because there were so many things he had to say to the boy. He begged and pleaded for his best friend to open his eyes because “I fucking love you” and “I need you, Richie!” and “I can’t lose you Richie” and Eddie couldn’t remember a day he didn’t cry after they placed the white blanket over Richie’s face and took him away. 

At Richie’s funeral only six people turned up, but it didn’t matter because only six people in Richie’s entire world loved him and that didn’t fucking matter. They all took turns to speak as Richie’s stone black coffin laid six feet deep underground. They spent close to an hour telling each other stories they remembered of Richie and they laughed at every single one with tears spilling onto the ground. Beverly told them about that time they got caught smoking outside of school and Richie kicked the teacher in the shin and took her hand and ran. Bill told them how he met Richie when the boy found him crying under the bleachers because people had been making fun of his stutter, and Richie promised to always “defend his honour.” And Stan told them about all the times Richie came to him asking him about his religion and genuinely being interested, and Ben told them how Richie made him a mixtape with all his favourite New Kids on the Block songs. Then Mike told them how Richie would always come round to help look after the farm animals even though he didn’t know shit about animals. And when none of them could speak no more they used their final words to tell the wind that they loved Richie Tozier, in the hopes that it would carry their words and maybe it would find their way back to Richie. 

Eddie was the last of the six to speak.

“Richie Tozier wasn’t liked by many people. He was annoying and he did stupid things that people hated him for, and his teachers didn’t like him and his parents didn’t love him but none of that matters because we loved him. Because I loved Richie Tozier and I don’t think I will ever love anyone like I loved Richie Tozier,” he spoke, and his voice was cracking and his sobs kept interrupting his words but he still kept speaking because he refused to leave anything unsaid. “Richie Tozier did not deserve this, and I will walk through fire and flames so every single person in this fucking world knows that Richie Tozier did not fucking deserve to die.”   
  
It was a warm Summer’s day when six roses were placed over Richie’s grave before it was covered by the earth. Six stunning red roses, because six people loved Richie so much that  _ it didn’t matter  _ that dozens of people hated him. And every single day six red roses sat fresh above his grave until six more graves joined him by his side. Because until the day he died Eddie wanted everyone in Derry to know that Richard Tozier was loved so endlessly and infinitely that their hatred never mattered.

**Author's Note:**

> SORRY <3


End file.
